Pod Insights National Park After Dark The Port Chicago Disaster: Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial About this episode On July 17th, 1944 the worst home front disaster of WWII unfolded in an instant when a munitions base exploded with the force of 5,000 lbs of TNT just outside of San Fransisco. The catastrophic incident killed 320 people instantly and injured hundreds more. The event resulted in the largest mutiny trial in US Naval History and raised awareness of racial injustice and unsafe working conditions during the war and became a critical event in the Civil Rights Movement. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s partners! BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off. Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 50% off your first subscription order. Rocket Money: Use our link to get started saving. IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:02 Danielle LaRock? Betty Reed Soskin thought it was an earthquake that shook her awake. It was Monday, July 17, 1944, and Betty and her husband Melvin had just turned in for the evening. The pair had just hosted a group of black sailors for a small gathering, providing music, food, and an opportunity for socialization. It was a time of segregation, and many restaurants and bars in their community of Port Chicago, a suburb of San Fransisco, California, refused to provide black sailor service. In response, the couple often warmly opened their doors to their home just as they did that Monday evening. Betty looked at the sailors, like the young man named Richard she spent much of the evening speaking with, with concern,
1:46 Danielle LaRock? taking note of how young and vulnerable he and the others appeared. As they spoke, laughed, and interacted, it was apparent, these were boys, not yet men, and it troubled Betty to think of what awaited them just outside the safety of her residence as the Second World War unfolded.
2:05 Danielle LaRock? Hours later, sitting up in bed, bracing themselves for the ensuing quake, the couple held their breath, but only silence followed. The house shook and then stilled. Eventually drifting back to sleep, Betty and Melvin would awake the following day to news of a catastrophe. San Fransisco is no stranger to them. Devastating fires, landslides, and earthquakes had infamously plagued the area for generations. But this was different. The quake they felt was actually the reverberations of what would go down in history as the worst domestic disaster of World War II. One which took the lives of Richard and over 300 others, resulting in the largest mutiny trial in US naval history,
2:49 Danielle LaRock? and emphasized the dangers of racial injustice and discrimination within the military and beyond.
2:58 Danielle LaRock? This is the story of the Port Chicago disaster. Welcome to National Park After Dark.
3:24 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, you really set the scene for this episode. And I have heard of this disaster and I know bits and pieces about it, but I'm really excited that you're doing a deep dive today because I feel like I should know more about it.
3:37 Danielle LaRock? I think everyone should know more about it because I went into this not knowing anything about it. And now I am so glad that I'm, I can share it with everybody. So hello, everyone. Welcome to National Park After Dark, the podcast where we discuss pretty much anything that happens within national park site boundaries. And my name is Danielle.
3:57 Cassandra Yahnian? And I'm Cassie, and I'm so curious of what national park this is tied into.
4:02 Danielle LaRock? So this is actually going to be tied into the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial.
4:08 Cassandra Yahnian? That's a mouthful.
4:09 Danielle LaRock? I know. Did you see me? I was like, hold on, I have to read it in its entirety and take a sip of.
4:15 Danielle LaRock? This is probably the grossest coffee I've had in a really long time, but it's
4:18 Cassandra Yahnian? Is that a Donuts cup I see?
4:20 Danielle LaRock? Yes.
4:22 Danielle LaRock? Well, this is kind, this is an episode that is a continuation of our celebration and recognition of Black History Month. So this story is going to have a lot of upsetting themes, but it's one that, like I said in the introduction, it's a story that really highlights the dangers of the way of thinking back then and how it bleeds into every part of life. Like I said, this is a military-based story, but it has far-reaching consequences. So are you ready?
4:56 Cassandra Yahnian? I'm ready. Let's dive into it.
4:58 Danielle LaRock? Okay. The origin of our story today begins nearly three years earlier, on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the most important American naval base in the Pacific. The attack on Pearl Harbor was catastrophic. The ambush killed thousands, shocked the nation, and launched the US into the war. The attack's devastation of the base was far-reaching and created a plethora of different problems. And amongst the most pressing, a dire need for a new strategic ammunition transport site to load and transfer munitions, mainly military weapons, ammunition, and various different equipment bound for the war effort. Pretty quickly, a site near the small town of Port Chicago, California, located on the
5:41 Danielle LaRock? Sousan Bay in the Sacramento River was proposed. Just 30 miles from the center of San Fransisco, situated alongside three major railways and boasting a deep-water port with the ability to handle ocean-bound ships, this location really fit the bill.
5:55 Cassandra Yahnian? Also is a slightly confusing location because it's called Port Chicago, but it is in San Fransisco, California.
6:03 Danielle LaRock? Yes, correct.
6:06 Cassandra Yahnian? I was already like, huh. I was wrong.
6:09 Danielle LaRock? Where are we in the world? Yeah. Construction began in early 1942, and by December of that same year, the first ammunition ships pulled into port. Dubbed the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, it quickly became the most important ammunition handling facility on the entire West Coast. By July of 1944, personnel at the base consisted of 1,431 black enlisted sailors, 71 officers, 106 Marines, and 231 civilians, all of which were were white. Segregation was a policy of the military at the time, with African Americans and other minority groups being treated differently than white service members. During World War II,
6:51 Danielle LaRock? over 2.5 million African Americans registered for the draft and volunteered for service, yet were separated at almost every turn, from barracks to bathrooms to their jobs. Despite going through the same basic training as their white counterparts, black sailors were not always permitted to serve in combat roles. Instead, they were assigned to roles that included mechanics, construction, cooking, transportation, and in the case of this port in particular, stevedores, which was a job that consisted of loading and unloading ships. Trains would arrive with ammunition and bombs, and the black workers would transfer them directly onto awaiting ships and barges, the most dangerous job on the entire base, while white servicemen and civilians worked as guards
7:36 Danielle LaRock? and held positions such as carpeters, engineers, and lieutenants. Ammunition and bombs were transported to the base and onto their pier via railroad boxcars. Everything from small arms ammunition to artillery projectiles, anti-submarine warfare weapons, incendiary bombs, or weapons that were designed to start fires, all the way to huge blockbuster bombs, a type of high-capacity bomb used by the Air Force, known for their massive size and destructive power. Once they arrived on the pier, the ammunition handlers, men primarily in their teens to 20s, were divided into work divisions, which comprised of about 125 black sailors headed by a single white lieutenant. They would be assigned-
8:18 Danielle LaRock? Trying to use a sledgehammer and pinch bar to remove the cargo from their holds on the boxcars, then transport them to trucks. From there, the men in the trucks would secure the bombs and other weapons into nets or onto pallets, hoist them by boom and winches onto the ship, and then lower them through hatches into the ship cargo holds, where another squad of men would be waiting to stack the loads within those holds.
8:41 Cassandra Yahnian? What a terrifying job.
8:43 Danielle LaRock? It's gonna get so much worse, but yes.
8:46 Cassandra Yahnian? I just, that, just to know that you're handling that all day and what could potentially go wrong?
8:53 Danielle LaRock? Well, we're gonna get into that right about now.
8:56 Cassandra Yahnian? Oof, okay.
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9:31 Danielle LaRock? Not only was the job dangerous because of the glaringly obvious, you know, their handling and transporting literal tons worth of explosives, but because of the way in which it was happening. It was normal to see men tossing each other munitions, manhandling large bombs on the pier, rolling bombs down inclines, people dropping and bumping bombs into one another, or banging them accidentally into the ship walls, and loading them willy-nilly into the holds. And all of this to say-
10:00 Cassandra Yahnian? I'm just imagining people rolling a bomb down the hill.
10:03 Danielle LaRock? Well, all of this to say, through no fault of their own. The decision to utilize sailors for this particular job at this particular base in Port Chicago was a relatively unique and unprecedented one. Typically, these roles were fulfilled by unionized civilians, but in an effort to increase security and lower costs, enlisted sailors were chosen for the positions. Part of lowering that cost came at a huge price. Baby offered no training to the enlisted men and the bare minimum, if any, to the officers. No munition handling training was offered at this base. Instead, they were expected to just simply learn their job and how to do their job by watching workers who had been in that role longer than them, who were not trained.
10:48 Cassandra Yahnian? I mean, there's something to say for on the job training for things. However, when that comes to explosives, I don't think that counts. And to go into a job like that and be offered no training to be there is really upsetting, especially for servicemen and, and women, not women at this time.
11:09 Danielle LaRock? There's no women at this, uh, point in time.
11:11 Cassandra Yahnian? For all the servicemen that are quite literally offering up their lives for their country to not receive training is really, really horrible.
11:20 Danielle LaRock? Well, new recruits, especially, you know, ones who are just being brought onto the job, were extremely nervous and rightfully so, but their hesitations were quickly shot down by officers, many of which, I should note here, were civilians called to active duty with no experience in either munition handling or commanding recruits. And they would say they didn't need to worry because the bombs were not capable of exploding accidentally as they claimed the detonators had yet to be installed. So they're kind of like, yeah, yeah, don't worry about it. Like you're, you're making a big deal out of nothing.
11:52 Cassandra Yahnian? That explains why people were fine with rolling them down hills and like tossing them back and forth to each other if you think that they can explode.
11:59 Danielle LaRock? Right. And they had, they were nervous. I do want to make that clear, but there was no, like they weren't given adequate, like, yes, they had booms and winches for certain things, but to transport certain bombs and weapons, they had to physically carry them or load them themselves. Like they didn't have a lot of other support. So if you got like a 20 ton bomb, you gotta get it where it needs to go somehow. And a lot of that, that I got was from interviews from surviving family members, like kind of just describing what the work was like in a typical day and how things were done at this point. In time here and to kind of add to that, you know, so you have these officers saying, don't worry about it.
12:44 Danielle LaRock? They're not, they're not hot. You don't have to worry about them detonating. They also had some minor accidents that resulted in no explosions. So the transport men started to take their commanding officers word for it, despite joking about who would be the first or last out of the ship if something was to go south. So it's kind of like dark humor. It's like, huh huh.
13:07 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
13:08 Danielle LaRock? Uh, I guess this is fine, but if it's not fine, then
13:13 Danielle LaRock? who's, who's gonna make it out?
13:14 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
13:15 Danielle LaRock? But not only was there a lack of formal training, the working conditions were equally as hazardous. The men were overworked, sometimes working three shifts in a row. Segregation forced them to walk half a mile to the nearest black bathrooms, despite bathrooms being located on the very ships that they were actively working on. From the moment the base was opened, Port Chicago was under pressure to continually increase its output in response to the growing wartime needs. As a result, work at the base was constant with operations running around the clock, while often ignoring standard safety procedures along the way. For example, the loading platform, originally designed and constructed to accommodate one ship, was widened to allow two ships to be loaded simultaneously.
14:00 Danielle LaRock? This in turn doubled the men, machines and munitions on the pier all at once, and thus increasing work hazards and potential problems. This perpetual demand also translated into work pace. It was commonplace for white officers to make their crews compete with one another as to who could load and unload ammunition and explosives the fastest, making bets as to whose crew could move the most each and every day.
14:25 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay, so there's no safety protocols in place. This is just
14:29 Danielle LaRock? No.
14:29 Cassandra Yahnian? a betting game, a race that obviously they're being forced to participate in, but.
14:36 Cassandra Yahnian? This is awful.
14:38 Danielle LaRock? It's a recipe for disaster.
14:40 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
14:40 Danielle LaRock? Is it not?
14:41 Cassandra Yahnian? Quite literally.
14:42 Danielle LaRock? In April of 1944, when Captain Merrill T. Kinney came aboard as officer in charge of Port Chicago, he initiated the practice of keeping score for each division on a blackboard in the dock office, which gave rise to an immense pressure felt by these divisions. It wasn't just some healthy competition either. Officers would threaten punishment and falsely promise rewards, continuously striking down anyone who raised concerns. And it was not just the enlisted men that voiced their worry. The Longshore and Warehouse Union, a labor union that primarily represents dockworkers on the west coast of the US, issued a warning to the Navy. What they were doing was dangerous. And if they kept it going, a disaster was imminent.
15:24 Danielle LaRock? They outlined best practices, for just one example, because we could dedicate an entire episode as to everything that they were doing wrong or mishandling. But for example, a winch driver working within the union would be allowed to work with ammunition after a minimum of one year's experience. On the other hand, a Port Chicago winch worker would receive three days' training in a best-case scenario, and in a worst-case scenario, no days' training before being put on the job. The union even offered to train the men at Port Chicago in the safe handling of ammunition, but the Navy ignored their proposal, not wanting the time dedicated to training to impede their work output.
16:06 Danielle LaRock? The US Coast Guard also stepped in, warning the Navy that they were creating a perfect storm for disaster. Again, the warnings were dismissed until the perfect storm was right upon them.
16:17 Cassandra Yahnian? The foreshadowing that you're doing for this episode is crazy.
16:21 Danielle LaRock? Well, here we are at the main event now, unfortunately. But I'm glad I'm painting the picture, because that's exactly, I want everyone to recognize that this wasn't just like a one-off accident. Like, there was a lot of things that contributed to this event that could have been mitigated and handled and potentially avoided something like this happening.
16:43 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, when you have another branch of the military coming in and being like... Like, hey, you're not doing things appropriately. This is really dangerous. And that branch is still like, no, it's fine. It's all good. That's a super concerning.
16:55 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. And the, you know, the union that usually handles things like this and they're well versed in safety precautions and proper training and how, you know, they're like, we do this.
17:06 Cassandra Yahnian? Professionals.
17:07 Danielle LaRock? Professionally and we've, we do that. This is what we do. And for them, the Navy to just completely ignore not only their critiques and their warnings, but also their offer to help. It's just like, at every turn, there's so many instances where this could have been avoided, which makes it really frustrating.
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19:02 Danielle LaRock? July 17, 1944 was a clear, cool, moonless night. Two ships, the EA Brian and the Quinault Victory, were tethered to the Port Chicago Pier, illuminated under floodlights as roughly 200 men were hard at work loading them. The EA Brian, with about 4,600 tons of munitions, over a quarter of which were high explosives, including "hot cargo," so named as they had detonators installed, which were incendiary bombs, actually, to be more specific, weighing 650 pounds each. As the ships were being loaded and rigged, a train and 16 boxcars sat nearby, surrounded by more men and about 430 tons of ammunition and bombs of various shapes and sizes awaiting transport.
19:46 Danielle LaRock? We know that several days earlier, several repairs on a failed winch and a faulty brake had been done, and that a chief engineer had been notified by one of the sailors that another brake was stuck on the EA Brian in Cargo Hold Number 1, the same hold being loaded with hot cargo. We do not know if that repair was made. What we do know is that 18 minutes after 10:00 PM, disaster struck. In a flash, the dark sky lit up in a brilliant white flash as a deafening explosion with the force of 5,000 tons of TNT ripped through the base. Seconds later, another. The ships were obliterated. An Army Air Force pilot flying 9,000 feet above witnessed house-sized pieces of glowing metal shoot well above his plane.
20:31 Danielle LaRock? A seismograph at the University of California at Berkeley registered a jolt that had the force of a small earthquake, sending a seismic shock that could be felt as far away as Boulder City, Nevada, over 500 miles away. Citizens throughout the Bay Area were startled awake, just as Betty and Melvin had been. Windows were shattered as far away as San Fransisco. Witnesses reported seeing the explosion shoot a column 200 feet into the sky, carrying with it the bow and mast of one of the ships, before it fell back into the bay some 500 feet away. A pillar of fire and smoke snaked nearly two miles into the sky above the city, like the breath of a mighty dragon. disappeared in an instant, leaving a large gaping crater where it once stood.
21:15 Danielle LaRock? The train and boxcars essentially vaporized and the sky rained with smoldering debris and unexploded shells that had been launched into the air. Simultaneously, all three hundred and twenty men on duty, including two hundred and two African Americans, were killed instantly. Four hundred others were injured as the explosion ripped through the base, sending men flying against walls and through windows. Splinters of wood, chunks of debris, and shards of glass were hurled in a one thousand foot radius. As the dust settled and survivors staggered to their feet, picking glass out of their skin, rubbing their burning eyes, and finding their bearings as their ears rang, what they saw was nearly indescribable. Those who were able to immediately set out to locate and help the injured
21:59 Danielle LaRock? and to extinguish the secondary fires that raged through the decimated base. The town of Port Chicago itself experienced extensive damage and over one hundred people were hurt, but no one was killed. So that's the explosion. And it's just like the devastation is hard to describe, but I hope I did it a little bit of justice. Like this was just instant, there was no warning and it killed the hundreds of people who were in any sort of vicinity to the ships because that's where kind of ground zero was. And if you, I'll post a few pictures and the National Park Service actually has a great library of photos
22:40 Danielle LaRock? because a ton were taken and, and some of them have been colorized, which really helps, I think, us looking back on historic events to really place ourselves there.
22:49 Cassandra Yahnian? Are there pictures of the actual explosion happening?
22:52 Danielle LaRock? No, especially because it happened so fast.
22:55 Cassandra Yahnian? Quick.
22:55 Danielle LaRock? Right.
22:55 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
22:56 Danielle LaRock? There's photos of the aftermath and especially looking from like out into the pier and you can see just pieces of the ship everywhere, the pier is non-existent, everything is flattened. And it's kind of hard to tell what is what because there's so much debris and confusion and yeah.
23:14 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah. Well, the way that you described the pilot who you said, I think was flying at nine thousand feet was seeing. Debris on fire shooting past him just really shows how incredibly huge this explosion was. I mean, 9,000 feet into the air is
23:30 Danielle LaRock? How size
23:31 Cassandra Yahnian? Insane.
23:32 Danielle LaRock? Chunks of the ship.
23:33 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah. Imagine being that pilot and you're just flying, minding your own business, doing whatever you're doing that day and or night, I should say, and all is well. And then suddenly there's a house sized piece of metal on fire whizzing past you.
23:50 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
23:50 Cassandra Yahnian? I think I was under attack or something. Yeah, that's so scary. And I mean, all of it is really terrifying.
23:58 Danielle LaRock? In the days following the explosion, those who survived grappled with the trauma of what they experienced and with the loss of their comrades. Some were in shock, others were deeply affected immediately. And while white officers were sent home to recover and process the trauma of the event on hardship leave, a type of paid leave granted to an employee experiencing a severe personal crisis or health issue, the black sailors hoped to be granted a similar leave to visit their families, but no such leave would come for them. Instead, they were sent back to the docks to recover human remains and to sort through the carnage. Of the 320 men killed, the remains of only 51 were identifiable, for the men often only found pieces of their friends. A foot and a boot here, a torso
24:43 Danielle LaRock? there. While Navy Seabees, or construction workers, arrived on scene to rebuild the base, the remains that could be recovered and were not completely incinerated were collected and transported for burial at the Golden Gate National Cemetery. Forty-four sailors are interred there, 17 of whom were identifiable by name, and the rest who are buried there are marked in unknown soldier graves. The majority of the black survivors were transferred to other stations to await what was to come next because their base is completely obliterated. Four days later, so now we're on, we're at July 21st, an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the explosion was launched. A court of three naval officers
25:27 Danielle LaRock? and a judge convened to present evidence and to examine witnesses. Officers and captains evaded responsibility, denying the belief that their competitions, scorekeeping, or bets negatively impacted the safety of the operation, and implied that the sailors who held that belief were wrong. Despite the court hearing testimony related to the possible causes of the explosion, the exact cause was never determined, largely due to the lack of immediate eyewitnesses and the extensive destruction of the munitions pier area. However, we can pretty plainly see a number of operational shortcomings, such as a maxed-out operational capacity, lack of proper munition handling's training for both the handlers and the officers, unsustainable demands,
26:12 Danielle LaRock? and a lack of proper safety procedures, just to name a few, which we've already discussed. The complete 1,400-page trial transcript is available online for anyone if you're interested in knowing more about the proceedings, just as a heads up, because we're going to get into more of that.
26:28 Cassandra Yahnian? Gotcha. If anyone likes reading court documents.
26:31 Danielle LaRock? There you go. You'll be busy for a while. No officer was held accountable in any way for the disaster. And in fact, the judge advocate, Lieutenant Commander Keith Ferguson, argued that the black sailors who perished were the ones responsible, saying in part, quote, "The consensus of opinion of the witnesses and practically admitted by the interested parties is that the colored enlisted personnel are neither temperamentally or intellectually capable of handling high explosives."
27:00 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, come on.
27:03 Danielle LaRock? I know. He continues, "These men, it is testified, could not understand the orders which were given to them, and the only way they could be made to understand what they should do was by actual demonstration. It is an admitted fact, supported by the testimony of witnesses, that there was rough and careless handling of the explosives being loaded aboard the ships at Port Chicago." End quote.
27:25 Cassandra Yahnian? It's funny how they're claiming this right now, but they specifically, they're saying that the black community isn't smart enough to handle these explosives, and this is all their fault. But I think it's very important to point out. That none of the white soldiers were willing to do this job. So there's that first off, but then also they weren't willing to train or offer any safety protocols or even accept training for them. So what did they, they put them and, and they were forcing them to do races with explosions.
28:02 Danielle LaRock? I know it.
28:03 Cassandra Yahnian? And we're explosives. Like what?
28:05 Danielle LaRock? I feel like I say this a lot every time, but like it does get worse. So we can hold this conversation until.
28:12 Cassandra Yahnian? Perfect.
28:14 Danielle LaRock? After.
28:14 Cassandra Yahnian? I'm already mad. I'm already fired up.
28:16 Danielle LaRock? Okay.
28:18 Danielle LaRock? Ready.
28:19 Cassandra Yahnian? But tell me more bad things.
28:28 Danielle LaRock? On August 9th, the surviving members of the ordinance battalions were ordered to resume work on nearby Mare Island, which is where they were, they were sent as their port is being rebuilt. Um, they're like, okay, we're gonna.
28:43 Cassandra Yahnian? So they're sending them to continue to work with explosives.
28:46 Danielle LaRock? Yep. They were marched to the loading pier of that island to do the same exact thing to load munitions.
28:54 Cassandra Yahnian? And they didn't add in safety protocols or training at this point?
28:58 Danielle LaRock? No.
28:58 Cassandra Yahnian? Perfect.
29:00 Danielle LaRock? These men were shocked. Not only was the explosions blame placed on them and their dead comrade friends.
29:07 Cassandra Yahnian? Mm hmm.
29:08 Danielle LaRock? But their commanders had done nothing to properly address the issue. They had undergone no training, instruction, or debrief. They were being ordered to resume work as if one of the most powerful manmade explosions in history hadn't just happened in front of them. Perplexed, shocked, angry, in disbelief, and in all likelihood terrified, they stopped their march and refused to comply with, with the orders.
29:32 Cassandra Yahnian? As they should.
29:33 Danielle LaRock? After some threats, some of the men moved forward and complied, but of the 328 in the group, 258 refused. Although there was no violence or threat of violence, the men were marched to a barge where they were imprisoned for three days, over which Time they fought and debated amongst each other as to whether to return to work. Some were scared of the consequences of disobeying their commanding officers, while others were more terrified of the consequences of returning to work in an unsafe environment. Joe Small, a winch operator, said of their reasoning, quote, "I was a winch operator on the ship, and I missed killing a man on the average of once a day, killing or permanently injuring a person,
30:17 Danielle LaRock? and it was all because of rushing, of the speed. I didn't want to go back to this. This was my main reason for refusing to go back to work, to get the working conditions changed. I realized I had to work. I wasn't trying to shirk work. I don't think any of these other men were trying to shirk work. But to go back to work under the same conditions with no improvements, no changes, the same group of officers that we had, it was just, we thought there was a better alternative. That is all."
30:45 Cassandra Yahnian? And I think that that is not unreasonable to ask at all.
30:49 Danielle LaRock? I would agree. I feel like that's a very basic ask.
30:52 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
30:53 Danielle LaRock? And shouldn't even be an ask. It should just be the way it is, but.
30:57 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, when there are hundreds of lives that are lost in a job that you are doing and no one tries to revisit how that happened and why, and instead just casts blame and then tries to send you back literally into the fire to be there with no resolution.
31:13 Danielle LaRock? Or recognition of really what even happened.
31:16 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
31:17 Danielle LaRock? After several days locked aboard this barge, the men were brought ashore and into a field. Rear Admiral Carlton Wright berated the group, nearly spitting as he screamed at them, calling them cowards and warning them that, quote, "Mutinous conduct in a time of war carries the death sentence." Continuing, quote, "The hazards of facing a firing squad are far greater than the hazards of handling ammunition."
31:42 Cassandra Yahnian? Then you go in.
31:43 Danielle LaRock? Again, everybody was stunned. They were just given a death threat and it was the first time that mutiny was brought up. No one had ever thought that their actions would be considered as such. After the reprimands and threats concluded, they were ordered into two groups, one for those willing to comply with the orders and one for those who were not. And to be clear, just in case this was not clear before, the only orders that the non-compliant group were unwilling to follow were the unsafe handling of munitions transport. They simply just wanted proper training and safety measures to be implemented before proceeding with work and they were compliant with every other instruction given by their commanding officers.
32:27 Cassandra Yahnian? So calling this mutiny is very much an overreach and is not what's happening.
32:32 Danielle LaRock? And not true.
32:33 Cassandra Yahnian? And not true, yeah. They're just demanding, not even demanding, it sounds like they're asking for better working practices and instead they're being imprisoned and threatened by a firing squad?
32:46 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
32:46 Cassandra Yahnian? So you either die by firing squad or not a if it will happen, but when it will happen explosion?
32:53 Danielle LaRock? Right. After some really heartbreaking decisions, 50 men remained unwilling while 208 moved into the willing group. The willing group was given a summary court martial, which is a military trial for minor offenses in which a single commissioned officer acts as the judge, prosecutor, defense counsel, and jury. They were all briefly imprisoned, given bad conduct discharges and a three-month loss of pay. And that is for-
33:19 Cassandra Yahnian? Thank you for your, thank you for your service.
33:22 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. And that's for the willing group now. Like-
33:25 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
33:26 Danielle LaRock? Okay, we're bending the knee. You know, like, God, like, I guess, yeah, after you berate us and threaten our lives and scream at us and wear us down, like, okay, we'll do it. And that's still the treatment they got?
33:51 Danielle LaRock? As for the unwilling group, the 50 African-American sailors who continued their refusal to return to work citing the lack of proper safety measures and training were in turn charged with mutiny and put on trial at the Treasure Island Naval Station in San Fransisco Bay on September 14th of that year. The court consisted of seven white naval officers and was prosecuted by Lieutenant Commander James F. Coakley while the defense was handled by five young lieutenants, which I would like to point out is one attorney for every five men because there's 50 on trial. The defense objected to the charge of mutiny highlighting the legal definition of the word as "unlawful opposition or resistance to or defiance of superior military authority
34:36 Danielle LaRock? with a deliberate purpose to assert, subvert, or override the same." So they went on to argue that the men were not deliberately trying to seize power, followed all other orders, and committed no acts of violence. They were just simply afraid for their lives.
34:51 Cassandra Yahnian? Which is totally warranted.
34:53 Danielle LaRock? The injustices that they were arguing against permeated into the trial. Resources afforded to the white sailors were not afforded to them. Hearsay against the black sailors was permitted in the court and the court refused to admit vital evidence regarding the unsafe working conditions at the naval base. Again, all in the 1,400-page trial document if you want to know more. The trial was open to the press, whom quickly dubbed the defendants "The Port Chicago 50." News of their trial reached far and wide, including to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New York. The association sent their chief counsel of their legal branch, who was familiar with dealing with incidents of racial discrimination within the military, and his name was Thurgood
35:37 Danielle LaRock? Marshall, future US Supreme Court Justice. Throughout the trial's 12 days, Marshall learned about the treatment the men had been subjected to and was horrified. Despite being unable to directly defend them himself, he played a crucial role in their legal strategy, providing support to their defense attorneys. His dedication... Cation to the Port Chicago 50 brought even more attention to the case and also helped give it an important reframing. This wasn't simply a matter of military discipline. It was a civil rights issue. Together with the defense team, they argued that the Navy's policies concerning segregation and discrimination created conditions in which African American sailors were devalued and put in danger. It was the largest mutiny trial in US naval history and
36:22 Danielle LaRock? all eyes were on the court. Despite the defense's best efforts, after less than two hours of deliberation, the military court convicted all 50 sailors of mutiny, sentencing them to prison terms ranging from eight to 15 years in prison with hard labor, a complete forfeiture of their pay, and they were all given dishonorable discharges. Once the verdict was delivered, the men were loaded onto cattle cars and sent via railway to Terminal Island Federal Prison in San Pedro.
36:53 Cassandra Yahnian? That's, it's so embarrassing for our history to do that to servicemen, yeah, who are risking their lives and doing, who lost their friends' lives in doing the same job that they did, and now in front of a court with a very valid argument, get sentenced for mutiny over what is clearly not mutiny. I mean, it's, it's
37:18 Danielle LaRock? I mean, the racial bias, the bias is so plainly.
37:22 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
37:23 Danielle LaRock? It's just so clear.
37:24 Cassandra Yahnian? If it was a group of white servicemen who went through this, none of this would have happened. It wouldn't even be a conversation. There would have been full investigations. There would have, and like you mentioned earlier in this episode, there was white servicemen in the area and they got leave for the trauma they experienced.
37:44 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, right off the bat.
37:45 Cassandra Yahnian? Right off the bat.
37:46 Danielle LaRock? Yes. Yep. And so, like I said, looking back, it is so clear as day, but unfortunately, again, I hate, I hate to say it keeps getting worse because it does make a turn and we'll get to that shortly, but it takes a while, like to point to a word that you said, it takes an embarrassingly long time to recognize that this Was wrong and to kind of try and course correct a little bit.
38:10 Cassandra Yahnian? I just don't, I guess I just can't see through the eyes of the people who convicted them in a court and thought what they were doing was the right thing. And when you describe that too, where they're sentenced to hard labor, no pay in the prison system, and I know it's still an argument that's going on today, but that's essentially enslaving people for free. And you had these servicemen doing labor in the military who were being paid. And now you're taking them out of their military roles, who are very, at this point, very experienced men and officers in the military, and now you're making them do free hard labor for you. So I can't help but think that there's a monetary value in this decision and that like partially
38:55 Cassandra Yahnian? made them decide that they were guilty.
38:58 Danielle LaRock? Well, I can't speak on that because I don't know too much, uh, cause they, and again, we'll get to it shortly, but they weren't there long term. So I don't know if that, what role that played in the decision making, but clearly it was one that upset a lot of people. And Thurgood Marshall was one of them and he wasn't gonna take that lying down. He jumped into action right away. He called for a government investigation of the Navy's practices of assigning black service members to segregated roles, as well as the unsafe conditions in which the sailors worked. The investigation eventually exonerated the white officers of any wrongdoing or responsibility. In addition, he's like, okay, that wasn't the fricking point. Like, that's not like-
39:41 Cassandra Yahnian? Were the white officers in trouble to begin with?
39:43 Danielle LaRock? Well, there was, as I mentioned before, there was some preliminary investigation into, okay, what caused this? Like, what was the cause of the explosion? And right away, they're like, well, it couldn't have been the, any, any person that is white. So it's like, okay, again, this is, that wasn't what he was trying to do, but-
40:02 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
40:03 Danielle LaRock? Anyways, in addition, he also wrote to the Secretary of the Navy and continued his very public campaign, which reached the ears of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who also felt deeply for the unjust trial result and joined the effort for an appeal. Passionate editorials appeared in liberal and black press, and petitions with thousands of signatures showed up at the Pentagon. Their efforts did manage to reduce some of the men's sentences, but their appeal efforts were unsuccessful. Ultimately, it was the end of the war that freed the men from prison, and they were released in January of 1946, following which they were assigned to a year of "rehabilitation," where they served in crews aboard various
40:46 Danielle LaRock? US Navy ships. And after that one year, they were given general discharges, returned to their homes, and back to their lives as best they could. Although the charges of mutiny remained on their records, and they were denied benefits such as college tuition, unemployment, and housing provided to other World War II vets. Most never spoke a word of their experience to anyone, even to their closest loved ones. And I watched a lot of interviews of relatives, spouses, children, grandchildren of some of these men that found out after their deaths that they were even involved. Like, there was a lot of, I think, a lot of guilt and shame and pain that they didn't want to revisit or have
41:31 Danielle LaRock? to discuss with anyone. Although some did, you know, were transparent with their loved ones, some of them had no idea until much later. Their case was a major factor in the passing of a monumental order. Officially titled Circular Letter 4846, it opened general service assignments in February of 1946, stating in part, "Effective immediately, all restrictions governing the types of assignments for which Negro naval personnel are eligible are hereby lifted." End quote. In other words, the Navy had become the first branch of the armed forces to adopt and begin systematically implementing a policy of desegregation.
42:12 Danielle LaRock? Followed by the official order of desegregation throughout all branches of the military by order of President Truman in 1948. Their case was also the catalyst for the Navy to set up proper training and ammunition handlers. In the early 1990s Congressman George Miller, whose district included Port Chicago, began pushing to clear the names of the Port Chicago 50. Four years later, the Navy reviewed the convictions but upheld the original guilty verdicts, claiming that race was not a factor in the judgments. And that was 1994.
42:45 Cassandra Yahnian? How are you, how are you still riding that wave? Like, we all know it was based on racial bias at this point.
42:52 Danielle LaRock? In the late 1990s, President Clinton granted a presidential pardon to Freddie Meeks, one of the convicted men, but others who were still alive at the time declined a pardon, not willing to be forgiven for a crime they did not commit. And this is an important point to make here because a pardon is essentially saying, you did something wrong, but we forgive you. What the families of the Port Chicago 50, various lawmakers, including Congressman, Congressman Miller, the NAACP, as well as other organizations such as the Friends of the Port Chicago Memorial, what they were all really pushing for was a full exoneration, an official absolve of any blame, not a we forgive you, but you were in the wrong.
43:37 Danielle LaRock? This is like, we were wrong and we're so sorry.
43:40 Cassandra Yahnian? We're taking accountability for what we did to you. And it is publicly recognized that you did not do something wrong.
43:48 Danielle LaRock? Right. While the fight for justice was ongoing, Congressman Miller launched another campaign, this time to make the site of the explosion a national park. In 2009, three years after he began that effort, former President Obama signed the authorizing legislation and the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was unveiled and stands to honor the memory of those who lost their lives, to recognize the courage of the Port Chicago 50 and to serve as a place of reflection and education. Since its designation, guests have visited and been Able to read the informational boards that have been erected where only remains of the pier
44:27 Danielle LaRock? still remain and read every name of those lost on July 17th, 1944 engraved in stone on a large memorial marker overlooking the water. As the memorial is located on an active military base, if you are interested in visiting yourself, you just need to know that you have to make some advanced reservations. It's not just like a park you can drive up to and visit.
44:49 Cassandra Yahnian? Gotcha.
44:50 Danielle LaRock? Commemoration services are held annually on the anniversary of the disaster within the park. A National Park Ranger will stand behind a podium placed on the site of the explosion and retell a condensed version of what you heard today. They pay tribute to those who were lost that day and recognize the thousands of descendants of those who have connections to not only the Port Chicago 50, but everyone else who survived the disaster that day. And while each year's commemoration is special, last year's in particular was momentous. In 2024, following a recent thorough investigation that determined all the court marshals were unfair, full of errors and streaked
45:29 Danielle LaRock? with racial prejudice, US Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro announced an official exoneration of the Port Chicago 50 and the other 208 men who originally refused to work. In attendance that day were the children and relatives of the victims and survivors of the disaster, members of various organizations who had fought relentlessly for decades in pursuit of justice, and Betty Reed Soskin.
45:55 Cassandra Yahnian? Who we know is the oldest park ranger that has ever been in the National Park Service, and she worked at Rosie the Riveter National Historic Site for a long time, and she has a book, which I have yet to read, but I have it on my bookshelf.
46:13 Danielle LaRock? And who felt the explosion that night and knows people who perished in that explosion because she just had them at her house that evening.
46:21 Cassandra Yahnian? Yes.
46:22 Danielle LaRock? The exoneration itself was signed in front of Thurgood Marshall's son and Eleanor Roosevelt's granddaughter.
46:29 Cassandra Yahnian? Wow.
46:30 Danielle LaRock? None of the Port Chicago 50 remain alive today or live to see the exoneration, but for their families, the decision means everything. As Secretary Del Toro stated, "The Port Chicago 50 and the hundreds who stood with them may not be with us today, but their story lives on as testament to the enduring power of courage and the unwavering pursuit of justice. They stand as a beacon of hope, forever reminding us that even in the face of overwhelming odds, the fight for what's right can and will prevail." And that is the story of the disaster of the Port Chicago Naval Magazine and the Port Chicago 50.
47:08 Cassandra Yahnian? Wow, a really tragic story, a really interesting one that I'm glad that you decided to cover this for Black History Month. And I think it's really important to focus on the fact that they were fully exonerated in 2024 because that-
47:25 Danielle LaRock? Less than one year ago.
47:26 Cassandra Yahnian? Less than a year ago. And it just, it really shows how much is still going on with righting our wrongs from the past and moving forward and making things better than they have been in the past. And there are so many things from World War II that are still being resolved. And, and it's really, you feel like World War II was a long time ago, but even though with the Port 50, those people involved are not still alive. There's still a lot of people alive from World War II. And all of their families, I mean, those are their parents. You know, it's really, really recent. And even though history makes it feel like it wasn't, it really is. And the fact that this happened last year, it's incredible that it happened.
48:10 Cassandra Yahnian? I'm so glad it ended that way, but it just is a reminder that there's so much work that still needs to be done.
48:17 Danielle LaRock? And on that note, I mean, this only came after decades of a lot of different people really being relentless and not giving up and just, you know, we're still here, we're still here, this is not right. Hey, just a reminder, you know, just the incessant push for justice for clearing their family's name. And a lot of organizations who didn't, aren't directly related to them, but just know that it's the right thing to ask for and to demand. And I think that's just like really important to highlight that a lot of, a lot of things will go unchanged and just kind of will remain the
49:00 Danielle LaRock? same and not be reexamined or righted without people fighting for, for the right thing. And even if it takes time and a lot of dedication and frustration, like what, kind of just like, you want to pull your hair out, you know, like, why is this the way it is? And
49:19 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, why is this taking so long?
49:20 Danielle LaRock? Right. Like, what is the problem here? I think this is a really good example of, you know, sometimes it takes time, but like he said, Del Toro, you know, the fight for what's right can and will prevail. And I think that's what we should end on because it's a high note for a really frustrating story, but ultimately the right thing was done. And embarrassing that it took this long, but here we are.
49:48 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah. And it's a good reminder to not stop fighting for things that you truly feel are being done wrong and to fight for what is right because you can make a big change.
50:01 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. All right. Well, that's all that we have for today. We, uh, hope you enjoyed the view, but watch your back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark Book Club, live streams, Discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X at National Park After Dark.
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